Inherited and Environmental Influences on Development - Essay Example

?Reaction Paper on Human Growth and Development Inherited and Environmental Influences on Development: Define inherited influences and environmental influences on development. What are the differences between inherited influences and environmental influences? List and give examples of the effects of certain environmental influences on an individual’s development. Each person is born with inherited traits, be they physical, intellectual or even personality. A child has both his parents’ genes in him and inherited traits become apparent as the child grows. Many would claim that they have their father’s intelligence, sense of humor and even preference for certain foods while they got their mother’s smile, cooking talent and eye color. These are inherited influences There could be innumerable combinations of inherited traits possible and these t raits are usually considered when one claims to be somebody’s biological child. Brofenbrenner’s Ecological Model (1979) explains that the behavior and development of an individual is an interplay of the individual’s biological and personality factors, his environment and the society and culture he was born into. Brofenbrenner also claims that effects of interactions between the individual and his environment are two-directional or characterized by reciprocity. This means that while a child’s development is influenced and molded by his family, school and peers, he likewise influences and molds the behavior of others. The growing child moves through five systems that inter-relate and affect his development. The most basic of which is the microsystem, where direct contacts between the child and his immediate surroundings result in behaviors such as dependence or independence and cooperation or competition. An example of this is the home base of the child and his relationship with his family. The pure culture of the society this family lives in greatly influences how this family lives and how the child imbibes the culture as he expresses it in his developing personality. The mesosystem comprises the linkages and processes that take place between two or more settings with the child in common. A perfect example is how learning in school is supported by follow up lessons in the home. The third level comprising linkages and processes taking place between two or more settings is the exosystem. This includes at least one setting that does not directly involve the child, but still influences the processes within the immediate setting of the child. An example is the parent’s occupation. The workplace of this parent does not contain the child, but processes at work may affect his development such as the hours spent there by the parent may affect the parent-child bond. The fourth system is the macrosystem which includes the customs, values and laws considered important in the child’s culture and upbringing. A child from another culture may celebrate special customs and traditions from his culture apart from the special occasions celebrated in his host country. Lastly, the chronosystem in Brofenbrenner’s Ecological model, refers to the time that transpires as the child relates in his various environments. An example is the change that happens to the child while he grows up moving from one system to another, like the westernization of the values of a child originally from an Asian culture. This ecological model implies that the interplay and quality of the various systems and environments of the child will play different roles in influencing his development. Likewise, whatever comes out of that development will affect the various environments the child belongs to. For instance, the free expression of his culture may lead to environments being more accepting of it. Parents’ Role in the Development of My Personality: What role did your parents play in the development of your personality? Ask your parents to describe your temperament during your childhood and adolescence? How would you describe your own temperament as a young child? I was a very happy child growing up in a household of people with a good sense of humor and very positive disposition. My parents loved to laugh and always found something good in any situation. Perhaps it is the kind of modeling they presented to me that I have imbibed such characteristics from them, although it can also be genetic. My parents never failed to explain things that I do not understand. They never tired of my unceasing questions that they patiently answered. It further fueled my curiosity about the world and my unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Being lifelong learners themselves, they have greatly influenced me to tread the same learning path. I remember always having guests in our modest home. People are always welcome there and my mother never fails to serve them the best food, even if they come unannounced. She always had yummy snacks tucked away in the pantry for hungry guests. Being surrounded with people growing up helped me learn to deal with any kind of personality. Again, I’ve observed how my parents related to others and it rubbed off on me. I also believe I got the trait of impulsiveness from my mother, especially during shopping. Like her, I could not resist buying things on sale just because they are tagged with a hugely discounted price. From my father, I inherited my long memory. I could still remember the details of things from way back. However, the same goes for past hurts. Like my father, I can forgive but find it hard to forget people who have wronged me. Difference Between Self-Concept & Self Esteem: Identify the differences between the terms self-concept and self-esteem. Give three examples to illustrate how caregivers can facilitate children’s development of each of these areas. Include in your answer the ideal self versus the real self and the concept of representational mapping in early childhood The constructs of self-concept and self-esteem have been used interchangeably in many contexts. Cardenal and Fierro (2003) defined self-concept as “a set of descriptive and evaluative statements about oneself” (cited in Garaigordobil, Perez & Mozaz, 2008, p. 115). Simply put, it is how people represent, know and appraise themselves. On the other hand, self-esteem is the evaluative component within self-concept and self-knowledge. It is how one judges oneself based on his own self-knowledge. Early on in life, young children learn about their self-concept when they can identify themselves with their names, who their family members are, where they live, what their nationality is, and other personal information such as birthdays, age and gender. They get to know more about themselves as they grow up including their preferences for friends, food, fashion, etc. Garaigordobil, Perez & Mozaz, (2008) contend that self-concept is equivalent to self-knowledge, which would include all types of cognitive activity and content (concepts, percepts, images, judgements, reasoning, mnesic schemas, etc.). Adults can help a child develop a healthy self-concept by telling him stories about his background which includes family tales and cultural history. Another example of facilitating the development of self-concept is helping a child to organize his own personal space like his own bedroom and fill it with things associated with the child, including evidences of his accomplishments. Finally, exposing the child to family customs, traditions and practices like celebrating holidays with special rituals will enhance a child’s knowledge of his roots and develop pride for his culture. As a person grows, he also gets to make self-judgments that result in his self-esteem. There are two kinds of judgements namely descriptive and evaluative. Descriptive judgment is how one would describe oneself objectively as to how he truly is in terms of age, sex, profession, physical characteristics, forms of behavior, and so on. This looks at the real self. Evaluative judgments are concerned with how one judges one’s own characteristics and what he subjectively thinks about them. He judges himself in accordance to the measure of his ideal self. If his real self falls way below the standards of his ideal self, then, his self-esteem is low. On the other hand, people with very high self esteem may over-rate their real selves much higher than it really is and sees it as the ideal self. For example, a homely girl sees herself as exceptionally beautiful and that helps boost her self-esteem based on an unreal perception. Adults can facilitate the healthy development of a child’s self-esteem by constantly acknowledging his efforts and rewarding positive outcomes with appreciative comments and affectionate gestures. A child can also feel good about himself if he is aware that his parents are proud of him. In hearing positive things said about him to other people, his self-esteem is boosted. Another strategy to boost self-esteem is to point out a child’s kind deeds and process to him how it affects other people. Knowing that he was instrumental in spreading goodness will give him a sense of fulfillment and he will further be encouraged to do good. It is important for children to also be others-oriented and not to be constantly self-absorbed. Much research has been done on self-esteem. Some studies suggest that self-esteem levels are high during childhood, drops during adolescence and gradually rises again throughout adulthood then sharply declines in old age. (Robins, Trzesniewski, Tracy, Gosling, & Potter, 2002; Trzesniewski, Donnellan, & Robins, 2003). Certain life patterns may explain this observation. During childhood, one’s self-esteem is built up by the individual’s gaining of new skills and the approval of the people around him. Every little accomplishment such as taking a first step or learning to read, dance, act, etc. delights people around him. This further encourages the individual to learn more skills and to practice these until he gains competence in it. However, during adolescence, self-esteem may decline due to building insecurities in the formation of one’s identity. An adolescent becomes more self-conscious of how other people see him and fear that he is judged negatively. Hence, he likewise becomes tough on his self-judgment. Adolescence, being the time of transition between childhood and adulthood becomes a challenging time of testing limits, gaining more independence and establishing a new identity. There surfaces the need to clarify self-identity, life goals and life’s meaning, and failure to achieve a sense of identity results in role confusion (Erikson, 1963). As he becomes an adult, he again accomplishes more things like graduating from school, finding a job, getting married and raising a family. These all contribute to the building up of his self-esteem. Adults in the mid-life stage have a strong urge to leave a legacy by helping the new generation. They become very productive as they adjust the discrepancy between one’s dream and one’s actual accomplishments. Failure to achieve a sense of productivity results in psychological stagnation (Erikson, 1963). As he approaches old age, he learns that he is not as productive as he used to be, since he is constrained by his decreased physical strengths and stamina as well as mental deterioration in some cases. Late adulthood is a time when ego integrity over one’s lifetime is evaluated. If one looks back at the live he has lived with few regrets, then ego integrity is achieved. On the other hand, failure to achieve ego integrity leads to feelings of despair, hopelessness, guilt, resentment and self-rejection (Erikson, 1963). Thus, the feeling of being useless and worthless overwhelms him and this results in the sharp drop in his self-esteem. It is important for a person to know himself well, his strengths and weaknesses as well as the potentials and limits of what he can do. Mastery of self leads to a healthy self-esteem, which is a factor in one’s success in life. Development of Sexual Orientation: Define sexual orientation and explain the interaction of biological and environmental factors that contribute to sexual orientation. Sexual orientation of individuals is basically the tendencies of a person towards masculine or feminine behavior and personality. This is developed from an interplay of biological and environmental influences. From birth, a person is identified as a male or a female and they are treated as such. Societal expectations dictate how each gender is treated and that affects how the person develops his or her sexual orientation. Apart from the obvious differences in private body parts, one example of how boys and girls differ is in language and behavior. Maltz and Borker (1982) proposed the Sociolinguistic Subculture Approach. They explain that boys and girls grow up in essentially different talk subcultures resulting from the differing expectations parents and peers direct toward them about acceptable ways to talk. As early as two years of age, children classify themselves and other people as belonging to one of two genders. By age three, girls develop skills at talking earlier than boys and these talking skills are utilized to explore relationships with others. They are more likely than boys to deploy language strategies that demonstrate attentiveness, responsiveness, and support (Leaper, 1991). They develop intimate relationships by selecting a “best friend” and use language to find common ground with that friend. Boys at the same age are not as verbal. They use more strategies that demand attention, give orders, and establish dominance (Leaper, 1991). They engage in group activities with other boys and test out their ‘high’ and ‘low’ status roles: “I’m the leader”, “you follow me”, etc. They establish positions among the group and they are apparently louder, more physical and less verbal than girls (Rasquinha & Mouly, 2005). By the age of 7, children have acquired gender constancy (Kohlberg & Zigler, 1967) and knowledge of gender-role stereotypes (Huston, 1983; Martin, 1989). As they transition to middle childhood, interaction strategies become more gender-differentiated. Whereas girls become more competent in collaborative strategies, boys stick to their reliance on domineering influence strategies. Parents exert great influence on the development of their children’s sexual orientation with their own attitudes and practices. Children pick up these cues from parents as guidelines on how to behave in accordance to their gender (Fagot and Leinbach 1995; Turner and Gervai 1995). To illustrate, when parents have traditional values and display conservative attitudes about gender-related issues and they divide their household chores along traditional gender-specialized lines (ex. fathers fix the car and do carpentry work and mother cooks and cleans the house), their children learn to label their own gender as that of the same-gendered parent (Fagot & Leinback, 1995). It follows that they learn about gender-role stereotypes as well as gender-related preferences and behaviors. Fathers usually hold more conservative attitudes regarding gender roles, preferences and activities for their children (Turner & Gervai, 1995). They may be more one-tracked in terms of their choices for their son’s masculine activities and their daughters’ feminine activities. Mothers are more flexible in accepting their children’s various choices even if these do not conform to gender stereotypes. It follows that fathers have greater expectations for their children to fulfill their gender-based roles and behave according to their predetermined sexual orientation. They may also feel more frustration if their children turn out to be gay. Your son, Damian, wants to move in with his girlfriend so that they can see if they are compatible enough to commit to a permanent relationship. Without being critical of his choice, explain to Damian what you have learned from the research on cohabitation about the idea of “checking out the situation before making things permanent.” Offer Damian some specific methods he and his girlfriend can use to get some assurance that each is “the one” without moving in together. Morals have changed with the times! In the past, a man and a woman who are unmarried and caught together in the same bedroom would already spell a scandal. However, nowadays, pre-marital sex seems to fall into the pattern of love relationships and is widely accepted in most Western cultures. It is no surprise that more and more heterosexual couples are living together without the benefit of marriage. This cohabitation involves an emotional and sexual relationship. In 2005, the US Census Bureau reported about 5 million heterosexual couples cohabiting, which is most likely an underestimate. Popenoe (2004) found that at the end of the 1990’s, there was about ten times as many couples living together than at the beginning of the 1990’s. Damian and his girlfriend may have been brainwashed by the prevailing culture of cohabitation and easily decide to move in together to see if they can be a good fit for marriage. Most religions will be opposed to such view of marriage because it is supposed to be a sacred sacrament that single people should only go through when they are very sure of their choice for a spouse. Damian may argue that the intention of living together first before getting married is a wise move to ensure that he and his girlfriend will work as a married couple. If they find out during the cohabitation period that they are not compatible as a married couple, then they would agree to part ways. Smock and Gupta (2002) contend that in more than half of current first marriages in the United States, couples had lived together before marriage. Research shows that couples who lived together before marriage are likely to get divorced than those who did not live together previous to marriage (Smock & Gupta, 2002; Surra & Hughes, 1997). Many factors may contribute to such failures. One explanation may be that couples who opt to live together before marriage are more non-traditional and being so, they may have little qualms in seeking a divorce (Smock & Gupta, 2002); Surra & Hughes, 1997). Damian and his girlfriend would be better off not living together before marriage because it prepares them better for the commitment of marriage. Living apart may cause one to long for the other more than if they are just in the other room. There are many challenges in dating each other while living in separate residences like synchronizing schedules just to be together. It creates more excitement and anticipation to be with each other. This is the time when both lovers court each other without the responsibilities of a married couple. That in itself is a test and if they pass it, they may move on to the next level which is marriage. On the other hand, if a cohabiting couple conceives and produces a love child out of their unwed union, then it complicates their relationship. Problems of caring for the child and child support may crop up and this becomes worse when the couple breaks up and there is already a child to be responsible for. Most of the time, it is the woman who suffers more because she has no legal claim for child support and end up raising the child on her own. As a married couple, they will face new challenges together and raising a family is the expectation. The children are legally protected under law. However, while they are still single and enjoying the giddiness of their relationship, they can freely plan their lives independently and together without the strings of caring for children. They should bask in their romance while they still have less responsibilities because when they are married and filled with family duties, they may find it difficult to squeeze in the romance, not that it is impossible. Many married couples have successfully sustained their romantic element. Damian and his girlfriend will know if the other one is “the one” meant for him/her from their experiences together. A serious relationship is not all fun times. The test is if they stick it out together during the tough times. They will see how the other person handles problems outside their relationship such as in their jobs or families and see how it translates to their own marriage and family life. When they see that the other person is capable of dealing with problems either on his own or with the partner, and he or she still comes out whole without affecting the relationship or not changing the feelings they have for each other, and if they are both economically stable without needing to be financially dependent on the other, then they will know if they are ready to take the big leap to married life. References Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Cardenal, V., & Fierro, A. (2003). Componentes y correlatos del autoconcepto en la escala de Piers-Harris. Estudios de Psicoiogia, 24, 101-111. Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). New York: Norton. Fagot, B.I., & Leinbach, M.D. (1995). 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(2005) “When Women Talk: What Do Leaders Sound Like?”, Organisational Culture, June 2005. Robins, R.W., Trzesniewski, K.H., Tracy, J.L., Gosling, S.D., & Potter, J. (2002). Global self-esteem across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 77(3), 423-434. Smock, P. J., & Gupta, S. (2002) “Cohabitation in Contemporary North America.” In Just Living Together: Implications for Children, Families, and Public Policy, edited by A. Booth & A.C. Crouter. Lawrence-Erlbaum. Surra, C. A., & Hughes, D. K. (1997). Commitment processes in accounts of the development of premarital relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family, 59(1), 5–21. Trzesniewski, K.H., Donnellan, M.B., & Robins, R.W. (2003). Stability of self-esteem across the life span. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(1), 205-220. Turner, P. J., & Gervai, J. (1995). A multidimensional study of gender typing in preschool children and their parents: Personality, attitudes, preferences, behavior, and cultural differences. Developmental Psychology, 31, 759–772. Read More